The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Yoruba unity

  • Bode George seeks Yoruba unity

    A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has urged the Yoruba to shun selfish interests and unite to place the Southwest in the enviable position it deserves.

    The politician spoke yesterday at the grand zonal congress of Southwest Youth and Women Leaders in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.

    He noted that the Yoruba can no longer go in different directions.

    In an address, titled: “Truth, Sacrifice, Excellence and the Pathway to the Future,” George said: “Our founding fathers were largely steered by the greater good of the Yoruba nation. They knew that personal ambition must never eclipse the larger vision of our collective destiny. They knew that bitterness and envy must never be used to corrode the promptings of selflessness and sacrifice. They knew that avarice, malice and deceit can never be appropriated as the building tools of our Omoluabi culture. They knew that no society endures on selfish promptings of the moment. It is an arduous building block of focused service and dedication.”

    George urged the Yoruba nation in the build-up to next year’s general election to establish friendship across the nation.

    He added: “We must build bridges of friendship and cooperation across the vast Nigerian tribal crossroads to achieve the best for our people. We must negotiate with our First Eleven. We must work together with those who share our vision of progress to enhance the leadership of our nation.

    “I want to use this opportunity to appeal to all the sectors of the Nigerian nation to please give fairness and peace a chance to strengthen our national interest.”

    On the need for unity among the Yoruba, George said: “The Yoruba founding pioneers were indeed representatives of men and women who came from the furthest reaches of Ekiti, the fertile expanses of Ondo land, the streams and waters of Osun, the forests and thickets of Oyo and the mountainous ranges of the Atlantic shores.

    “Today, we occupy an inevitable position in the Nigerian firmament because we are now too much self-absorbed. We are too much hindered by parochial pursuits to the detriment of the greater Yoruba vision. We have dismantled the collective oneness which once gave us the cutting edge advantage in the past.’’

    The politician urged the Yoruba to return to what he called the time-tested virtues of their founding fathers.

    He said: “We must return to the sacred dignities of old where personal ambitions were restrained by humility. We must return to the instinctive patriotic zeal that insists on sacrifice and selfless service. We must return to the good old days when hard work and perseverance were treasured over the lazy recourse to the easy ways.

    “We can no longer afford to be going in different directions. That will not get us anywhere. It will always result in confusion and chaos. It will always result in aimlessness and forfeiture. As we push and pull in different ways, we become weaker and invariably enfeebled without any relevance, without any cogent achievements.”

    On the clamour for generational shift of power from elders to the youth, George said renewal and change form the lifeblood of all societies.

    “Nothing is static. Permanent progression is in here in the nurturing of new ideals and new vision. Change is a natural phenomenon. But any change that will endure must follow a certain process for it to achieve a desirable outcome that is sustainable…”

     

     

     

     

    “Let us not forget that politics and governance are like other sectors of life where you require a reasonable level of relevant knowledge, skill, period of tutelage or mentorship, experience and track record to attain a leadership position. No young lecturer, however brilliant, will say he is taking over as vice chancellor of a university without meeting certain requirements, as related to the standards of a university. It is wrong to think that anybody can take over any political position if he is not adequately prepared for it.

    “I support the “Not Too Young To Run” law recently assented to by President Muhammad Buhari. It is like what is referred to in the professional sectors as catching them young and training them for stardom. But let me warn that training and mentorship are indispensable.

    “Politics and governance in civilised societies have thrown up young leaders in recent times, such as President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria. But the toga of youthful embrace must not encourage rascality, mediocrity and disrespect for elders.

    “The young leaders in Europe rose through the system over a period of time and had distinguished themselves in previous political responsibilities entrusted upon them.

    “That is the way to go about it. What we need in this country is a deliberate and purposely built process of mentorship of the youths for responsibilities in politics and governance by our political parties. The youths must subject themselves to this process, patiently learning from the successes and failures, wisdom and mistakes of the experienced older political actors and functionaries.

    “A Yoruba adage says: ‘Omode ri ogun, o npe lefo’ (A child sees a herb in the bush and calls it a vegetable for preparing soup because of the limitation of his knowledge). It is the elder who then explains that it is a herb for preparing a medication. The youth have a lot to learn from the elders to avoid the mistakes of the past and be able to take the nation to the next level.

    “Humility is a priceless virtue. We must remember that the youths of today will become the elders of tomorrow who will be expected to mentor the youths of tomorrow. It is natural that they too will demand respect from incoming generations,” George said.

  • ‘Yoruba unity not negotiable’

    The Grand Council of Yoruba Youths, Agbarijo Egbe Odo Yoruba, has pledged to uphold the unity of the Yoruba race.

    According to it, “unity among the Yoruba is non-negotiable.”

    The organisation spoke in Lagos at the sixth Yoruba Youth Leadership Summit, known as Gbangbadekun.

    The summit, chaired by Emeritus Methodist Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu, featured participants, including representatives of youth organisations, market women associations, artisans’ unions and other interest groups.

    It called for the quarterly convocation of the meeting through which the Yoruba elected into positions could give account of their stewardship.

    The summit rued the absence of guest speakers, Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola and his Ekiti State counterpart, Ayo Fayose.

    Ladigbolu’s idea of consulting the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja II and Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, on the future of the summit, was applauded by participants.

    The summit urged Southwest governors to uphold the welfare of victims of the struggle to actualise M.K.O. Abiola’s June 12, 1993, mandate, “as this will “encourage genuine continuity of democratic struggle by younger generations”.

  • Adams pledges Yoruba unity as he becomes Aare Ona Kakanfo

    Adams pledges Yoruba unity as he becomes Aare Ona Kakanfo

    Before a large gathering of people from all walks of life, OtunbaGani Adams, yesterday mounted the saddle as the 15th Aare Ona Kakanfo (Generalissimo) of Yoruba, vowing  to use his position to  foster the unity and peace of the Yoruba race.

    But he solicited the support of all Yoruba worldwide, particularly the governors of the Yoruba states,who he said should see him as a partner in progress.

    Adams,speaking moments after the conferment of the title on him by the Alaafin of Oyo,Oba LamidiAdeyemi, said challenging as the title is,he is ready to work with all traditional rulers and leaders to project the Yoruba culture to the rest of the world.

    Considering himself lucky not to have come at a time of many wars like his predecessors, Adams said the challenge makes it dawn on it that more needs be done as a bridge builder.

    He promised to give scholarships to promising students to promote the academic virtues of the Yoruba.

    He also plans to launch an Aare Ona KakanfoFoundation to document and preserve all the traditional artefacts and virtues of all the previous holders of the title.

    Adams  also promised to work with all the security operatives to ensure the security of lives and property of the Yoruba states.

    Hundreds of eminent Yoruba sons and daughters came from different parts of the country to witness the historic installation of the Aare Ona Kakanfo.

    As early as 7.20am, most of the major roads in the town had become difficult to access due to heavy traffic.

    Some guests experienced exhaustion at the narrow entrance gate to the stadium as they struggled to gain entry, while others were stampeded.

    As a mark of honour and respect, shops, and markets in the ancient town were shut, while residents trooped out in large numbers to witness the installation ceremony.

    Venue of the coronation was filled to brim shortly before the programme started at about 10.40 am.

    The Alaafin of Oyo and the Aare Ona Kakanfo arrived the venue of the event in a horse-driven carriage  at  exactly 12.55pm to the heavy sound of  drumming.

    Their arrival threw the crowd into ecstasy, as many left their seats to have a glimpse of the chariot.

    Decked in a white, flowing agbadaand a traditional white cap to match, Chief Adams sat in front while the Alaafin took the back seat of the chariot.

    Governor AbiolaAjimobi of Oyo State arrived the venue at about 1.50pm .

    Some of the dignitaries present at the ceremony were  former governors Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao -Akala, Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan , and Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of Oyo, Delta and Ondo states respectively,  a legal luminary, Chief NiyiAkintola (SAN), Afenifere spokesman, Mr.YinkaOdumakin , Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, and an Oyo Chief , BisiIllaka.

    Others were   traditional rulers, religious leaders, members of OhanezeNdigbo,  security chiefs, led by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr.AbiodunOdude , socio cultural groups, captains of industries, traditionalists, and politicians amongst others .

     

  • Here is Yoruba unity

    The history of a people determines their desires, expectations, and group behaviour as a people.  The Yoruba people have had a great history in the world.  About 500 years before the earliest European exploration of the coast of West Africa in about 1500 AD, or about 1000 years before the coming of British imperialism in about 1900 AD, the Yoruba had built a rich and sophisticated urban civilization – the most advanced urban civilization in the history of Black Africa.

    Upholding this urban civilization was a great economic culture – sophisticated and highly productive agriculture, rich manufactures and crafts, and great commerce with tentacles reaching into most parts of tropical Africa. Yoruba trading colonies existed in the lands of the Upper Niger (modern Mauritania, Gambia, Senegal and Mali), in all coastal lands of West Africa, in the towns of the Hausa, Nupe and Kanuri, all the way to parts of the Upper Nile and the headwaters of the Congo. In a large part of West Africa, the Yoruba language was the language of commerce. A senior French missionary who visited much of the West African coast between 1634 and 1640 wrote that the Yoruba language “is universally used in these parts, just like Latin in Europe”.

    Inside Yorubaland itself, large towns flourished. The first Europeans to enter into the Yoruba interior (a group of explorers in 1825-6), wrote that “large towns at the distance of only a few miles from each other” characterized the whole of Yorubaland, and that most of the towns were “densely inhabited” and were “clean habitations”.  The approach to almost every town was “through an avenue of noble trees”, and in each town, public places were abundantly decorated with works of art, especially sculptures. These explorers added that the Yoruba people “have a genius for the art of sculpture…and some of their productions rival, in point of delicacy, any of a similar kind…in Europe”.

    The whole country was connected by a cobweb of well-kept and safe roads, protected by the governments of the kings. Where necessary, armed guards sent by the kings accompanied caravans of traders. On these roads, large numbers of traders and their porters were on the move at all times, day and night, usually in caravans numbering hundreds of people. A European missionary wrote that, near Ibadan in 1854, he travelled with a caravan that numbered over 4000 persons.  An American missionary who travelled extensively in Yorubaland about the same time, wrote that if caravans happened to merge, “imposing numbers” of people stretched “over several miles in length” across  the countryside. Along roads throughout the country, there were, wrote the 1825-6 explorers, “rich plantations of yams”, “extensive plantations of corn and plantains”, “plantations of cotton”, many “acres of indigo”, etc. In their summary, they wrote that the Yoruba people were “an industrious race”.

    Every town had large marketplaces, each heavily crowded when in session. A Dutch trader who visited some of the marketplaces between 1702 and 1712 recorded that there were, “without exaggeration more than six thousand” people in one marketplace. In one large town, the 1825-6 explorers counted seven marketplaces. In parts of the country, some marketplaces specialized in night-time trading. One American explorer wrote that the goods produced in “the Mediterranean and Western European coast…and the productions of the four quarters of the globe” could be found in every Yoruba marketplace.

    Over all this order and prosperity, kings (or Obas) of the many Yoruba kingdoms reigned. The Yoruba founded their first kingdom (the Ife kingdom) in about 900AD; and between that date and 1600AD, they founded over 70 kingdoms more. In about 1600, one of their kingdoms, the kingdom of Oyo-Ile, expanded its territories, conquered many non-Yoruba peoples, and established the largest empire in West Africa.

    The political system of the Yoruba was considerably democratic. An Oba’s government was government by a council of chiefs – the chiefs being representatives of the extended family groups (or lineages) of the royal city. Apart from the lineages, society in each town was organized into many associations. The whole system made each town a home of peace and order, of enterprise, of commerce, of entertainments, of large and colourful festivals. The 1825-6 explorers wrote that the Yoruba people were a peaceful people who loved order, who had great respect for the law, who had a lot of self-respect, and who were generally clean in their clothing and in their personal appearances. They recorded that, unlike in other parts of Africa, they could not persuade any Yoruba young men to carry their older explorers for them in a hammock, for any amount of pay whatsoever. When approached for this, Yoruba boys always answered that that was “a task fit only for horses”.

    Living in these systems and conditions made the average Yoruba person a freedom-loving – and a fashion-loving – individual. In meetings at every level in the system, the guiding principle was that everybody had full freedom to speak – that everybody, young or old, “has some wisdom to contribute”. All the world over, kings are succeeded by their offspring – usually their first child – and the citizens have no voice in the matter. In contrast, the Yoruba select their Obas from the pool of princes. All the people of the lineage compounds, in open lineage meetings, selected the chiefs.

    All these made the Yoruba person a very confident person – confident in his person, confident in society, accustomed to being respected by those who ruled over him. Yoruba women enjoyed more respect than women in most other cultures. The fact that Yoruba women controlled most of the enormous trade of their country contributed to making them free and enterprising, and made them control much more of their country’s wealth than women in most cultures in the world.

    The above, briefly, is a sketch of where the Yoruba have come from. To understand Yoruba behaviour in the affairs of Nigeria, one must understand these things. In the politics of Nigeria, the Yoruba may look “disunited”, but in reality, they are solidly united in their ideals and purposes.

    So, what do the Yoruba want for themselves and for Nigeria? First, the Yoruba want governments that are dedicated to the welfare and prosperity of their people. That is why the Western Regional government of the Awolowo era – 1952-62, is revered among Yoruba people today – and will probably be revered forever.

    Secondly, the Yoruba individual wants to be free in society, and to be able to make political choices and express himself freely. That is why Yoruba people usually look as if they are divided in the political life of Nigeria. But they are not divided; they are only more democratic than most other peoples.

    Thirdly, the Yoruba person desires that the rulers of his society should respect him. That is why Yoruba people always feel insulted and very angry when powerful politicians come and rig their votes at elections. It is why Yoruba people have put up most of the violent responses to the rigging of elections in the history of Nigeria.

    Fourthly, the Yoruba person wants to feel free to practice any religion of his own choice without molestation by anybody. That is why Yoruba people of all religions are very nervous about the perpetual Islamic radicalism from the Northern Region.

    Fifthly, Yoruba people strongly desire an orderly country. They therefore want the various nations of Nigeria, large or small, to be given due recognition and respect, and they want that the constitution of Nigeria should enshrine such recognition and respect. This is why the Yoruba elite have always advocated a rational federal structure for Nigeria – a federation based, as much as possible, on ethnically compact states, and in which the states will have the resources and constitutional powers to promote the development of their people. It is also why, though the Yoruba enjoy population strength and many other kinds of strength in Nigeria, they have never desired to dominate any other nation or to dominate the whole of Nigeria. Their rich civilization teaches them to despise any notion of ethnic domination, or any claim of ethnic dominance, as uttermost folly, a kind of destructive folly that endangers any nation that holds it, and that will ultimately make Nigeria unworkable and impossible to keep together.

    Finally, the Yoruba desire that individual Nigerians should be free and safe to live and do business anywhere in Nigeria. That is why they smoothly welcome very many non-Yoruba immigrants in their homeland. The Yoruba always give careful respect to other people in whose land they go to trade or do business, and they expect other people who come to trade or do business in their land to respect them also.

    The Yoruba are strongly united around these principles. Leaders may come and go, but the generality of Yoruba people remain united over what they love and desire.

  • Vending Yoruba unity at Ife

    Vending Yoruba unity at Ife

    The real issue is how to ensure the survival of age-old Yoruba civilisation, without sacrificing the core Yoruba value of tolerance of difference and plurality of perspectives.

    Oduduwa Hall at Obafemi Awolowo University was a few days ago the site for vending the latest political product in town: Yoruba Unity. The hallowed hall of ideas right from the days of Hezekiah Oluwasanmi almost became a source of contestation between merchants of Yoruba unity and students sent by their parents to acquire the knowledge with which they hope to transform Nigeria. Today’s piece is not about the juicy details of the confrontation between students and sellers/buyers of Yoruba unity, as the writer was too far from Ife physically to witness any detail at the unity market. The column today is interested in looking at distractions foisted on the Yoruba and by extension the Nigerian political landscape at the expense of the real issues that matter to the life of citizens-Yoruba or non-Yoruba.

    Nigeria’s existence has been driven from the beginning by unity as a concept, later as a project, and finally as a product, acquired or given to wholesalers to market at the ancestral home of one of Africa’s most sophisticated nationalities. At the beginning of Nigeria, Frederick Lugard brought diverse peoples from the East, North, and West together to co-exist in a country without a common history. It has been argued by political and economic historians that Lugard, on behalf of the British government of his time, did not create Nigeria for the benefit of Nigerians. He was believed to have brought the southern woman of means and the northern prince together for the purpose of easing the coloniser’s burden of financing the administration of Britain’s new market in sub-Sahara Africa. While the peoples of Nigeria were trying to make sense of their new political territory by negotiating their cultural differences, the colonisers were doing their own thing, expanding their trade in their new market.

    Independence brought a new reality. The three regions had a noticeably federal constitution that allowed each region to develop at its own pace. Soon after independence, the central government dominated by the northern region brought the issue of unity to the fore by strategising for a one-party system of government. Leaders of the central government from the two parties in alliance infiltrated the political party in power in Western region. The Action Group was broken into two: Awolowo’s AG and Akintola’s NNDP.

    The open text of the crisis fomented by the rupture focused on search for national unity (referred to in today’s political parlance as main-streaming) as the source of contention between the Awolowo group and the Akintola group. That was the first time that the concept, Yoruba Unity, became the driver of political ideology among the traditionally federal Yoruba states, hitherto integrated by Action Group with the ideology of welfare politics.

    The frantic search for Yoruba unity ended with the first republic. Military dictators shifted the struggle back to search for national unity. Ironsi on his part created a unitary Nigeria to be driven from and by the centre. Another coup came to change temporarily Ironasi’s policies back to the federalism in place in 1963. Soon after, the game changed again, especially with the advent of the civil war. Unity became a national project again. New states were created year in year out. Citizens in the balkanised states were pampered with funds from petroleum exploitation, and just about every group forgot about itself and looked forward to funds from the central government to oil the machines of government and the throats of government leaders.

    The second republic brought back the importance of ideology as a basis of political rivalry within the Yoruba region, with nobody worrying about Yoruba unity. Awolowo, the leader of UPN looked for people comfortable with the ideology of his party all over Nigeria while leaders of the NPN also did the same. The Yoruba region had some of its respectable sons and daughters in both parties, but most of the citizens identified with the UPN. There was no civil war in Yoruba land between the Awolowo group: Bola Ige, Lateef Jakande, Bisi Onabanjo, Adekunle Ajasin, and Yoruba NPN leaders: Akinloye, Abiola, and others in the NPN. No individual or group proclaimed itself as the custodian of Yoruba unity. In the third republic, Abiola and Ige found themselves in the same a little-to-the-left political party, an indication that if there was ever any division within the Yoruba, it was not cultural but ideological. The fourth republic again brought individuals from the Yoruba region, hitherto in opposing political parties in earlier republics, together into the same party. Old-time politicians like Abraham Adesanya, Bola Ige, Bisi Akande, and new-breed politicians like Segun Osoba, Bola Tinubu, and Niyi Adebayo found themselves in the same party with a programme to bring the politics of welfare back, and the rest is history.

    During the time that Save Nigeria Group was struggling to ensure that some cabal around Umaru Yar’Adua was not allowed to violate the constitutional provision that the Vice President, regardless of his or her geographic ethnic origin, should become president in the event of the person elected as president dying in office, unity in Yoruba land was not an issue. It was assumed by everybody that what was needed was for the Yoruba to have the opportunity to exercise their fundamental human rights of association. Even at the time of the 2011 presidential election, no serious politician raised the issue of unity. It was only in the last two years that the search for Yoruba unity became a religion and product at the same time, as it did in 1964-65. It was the search for Yoruba unity that was on sale in Ife a few days ago.

    Lovers of Yoruba culture and values should thank their deity that the marketing of Yoruba unity on the campus of ObafemiAwolowo University did not lead to serious destruction of life and property. I was told that a few Yoruba obas had to remove their crowns, beads, and robes in order to hide their identities movement to examination halls. Without really believing that our obas would be that cowardly, I do not feel any empathy for any oba who needed to suspend on his own volition his own divine kingship, on account of poor planning by a group preoccupied with Yoruba unity, with or without purpose.

    Before we end this historical piece, just a few questions for vendors of Yoruba unity. Why should Yoruba unity be a matter of concern to non-Yoruba people? President Jonathan is an Ijaw man hosted at Ife by miners of Yoruba Unity. How is an Ijaw man likely to be of use to the mining of Yoruba unity? The humble man was put under pressure to explain that he has been unhappy for the past four years because he had not been able to make a Yoruba woman the Speaker of the House of Representatives. How would getting a Yoruba woman to be speaker enhance Yoruba unity, having just experienced years in which two Yoruba people–male and female–served as speakers and even a Yoruba man, Olusegun Obasanjo, served as president for eight years?  Is this search for Yoruba unity for the purpose of fighting other nationalities in the country or to fight Yoruba who do not appear sufficiently united to cause of the self-appointed miners and marketers of Yoruba unity?

    The problem facing the Yoruba people of Nigeria today is much larger than a search for what is not missing. The real issue is how to ensure the survival of age-old Yoruba civilisation, without sacrificing the core Yoruba value of tolerance of difference and plurality of perspectives. If the Yoruba must find unity among themselves, it should not be at the expense of threat to life and limb of the country’s president, born and bred in another proud Nigerian nationality group that also has good reasons to be distinct from the Yoruba in many ways. It is rather late in the day for any individual or group to call a dog a monkey for Yoruba people. The political conflict in Nigeria at present is ideological: PDP versus APC. No Yoruba man or woman should need to use the search for Yoruba unity to occlude his affiliation with any of the two ideological poles. It will be vintage Yoruba to be active in both parties and be seen to be doing so by the generality of Yoruba people.